Elephant Stalkers: Fixed Perspectives and Required Results

Abstract

Economics is what economists do. A definition so closely resembling a tautology can be easily dismissed. Yet there is a gem of insight lurking in this claim that needs further investigation. In essence, the statement reflects the fact that few economists are self-reflective. They have more urgent objectives at hand. Such professionals are far more concerned with conducting research than with distancing themselves sufficiently to ponder deeply on the way they proceed with their work and whether their operational algorithm might contaminate their eventual results. Despite this common practice of affording such introspective examination a deservedly benign neglect, methodology remains important, though not in the irritatingly prescriptive sense adopted by Descartes or, in the case of economics, fashioned by Milton Friedman and his close ally George Stigler.